Hawks are hopeless

Imagine a desert. Desolate, without hope and no end in sight. Now you've got an idea of what the Phillips Arena looks like during an Atlanta Hawks game.

The Hawks, ever since dealing away arguably their greatest player of all time, Dominique Wilkins in 1995, have been annually one of the worst teams in the NBA.

The Hawks have amassed only 39 wins in the past two years combined. Contending for the playoffs is a distant memory.

As if being cellar dwellers in the Eastern conference wasn't bad enough, the Hawks have dealt with ownership squabbles. Ever since part-owner Steve Belkin tried to block the sign-and-trade of Joe

Johnson over a year ago, the Hawks' front office has been in disarray.

Since then, Atlanta has been unable to use their cap space to sign free agents. No one in their right mind would want to go to a team in the state the Hawks are in.

On the court, while they have some young talent, because of a shoddy defense and a high turnover ratio, the Hawks are expected to have another season with losses in the mid-50s.

They traded away their best all-around player in Al Harrington to the Indiana Pacers in the off-season.

To make matters worse, instead of getting quality players in return, they settled for a first-round draft pick. To them, Harrington was simply another salary dump.

Whatever fans the Hawks have left are undoubtedly losing hope, tired of the losing and internal bickering.

The Hawks have ranked last or near-last in attendance several years running. With no star names, expect that trend to continue.

The only hope is that the team will solve its ownership problems, clean the front office out and make a few good moves to get back in contention.